The team was a charter member of the Big 12 before leaving to join the Pac-12 Conference after the 2010 season.

[4]: 120 [5] Colorado won the national championship in 1990 under the direction of head coach Bill McCartney, who helmed the team from 1982 to 1994.

Colorado played the most difficult schedule in the country, beat more ranked teams and conference champions, and had a more talented roster.

In those seasons, 11 coaches have led Colorado to postseason bowl games: Bunny Oakes, Dallas Ward, Marcel M. Mazur, Bud Davis, Eddie Crowder, Bill Mallory, Bill McCartney, Rick Neuheisel, Gary Barnett, Dan Hawkins, Mike MacIntyre and Karl Dorrell.

[8] Ten coaches have won conference championships with the Buffaloes: Fred Folsom, Myron Witham, William Saunders, Oakes, Jim Yeager, Sonny Grandelius, Mallory, McCartney and Barnett.

[9] Folsom had the longest tenure as head coach, remaining in the position for 15 seasons.

In 2016, MacIntyre lead Colorado to a 10–2 regular season and a trip to the Pac-12 Championship Game.

[12] On December 3, Colorado announced Deion Sanders as Head Football Coach.

[13] A traditional college football rivalry with the Nebraska Cornhuskers restarted in the 1980s (many historical documents show the importance of this game going back to 1898) when Bill McCartney declared the conference opponent to be their rival.

In 1990, Colorado beat Nebraska 27–12 in Lincoln for the first time since 1967, en route to their first national title.

From 1996 to 2000, the series was extremely competitive, with the margin of victory by NU in those five years being only 15 points combined.

Nebraska had traditionally finished the Big 8 conference schedule with a rivalry game with Oklahoma, but the two were now in different divisions, which meant they met every other year in the regular season.

Colorado replaced Oklahoma as Nebraska's final conference game of the regular season, which further intensified the rivalry.

1 Nebraska came to Folsom Field undefeated and left at the short end of a nationally televised 62–36 blowout.

On September 7, 2019, Colorado mounted an improbable comeback after being down 17–0 at half, to win the game in overtime, 34–31.

The two schools are separated by 45 miles (72 km) and both consider it important and noteworthy to beat the other for bragging rights for the next year.

The two football teams annually compete in the Rocky Mountain Showdown for the Centennial Cup, played in Denver, Fort Collins, and Boulder.

[45][46] † = Posthumous honored In 2020, Colorado athletic director Rick George announced plans to re-issue uniform numbers 24, 67, and 11, with the support of the noted players (or their families).